The gun of slain Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca was recovered during a raid at a Far South Side home after it was allegedly tossed over a fence by a relative of the man wanted for the officer’s killing.
A fugitive task force went to the home in the 10800 block of South Hale Street last Friday to talk to a woman as part of the investigation into Huesca’s killing.
Caschaus Tate, 20, stopped the officers at the door, telling them, “Hold on, my girlfriend is naked in my bedroom,” according to a police report.
Tate then allegedly went into the bedroom, then out a back door and was seen tossing a Glock 9 mm pistol over a fence. Tate, who did not have a license to have a gun, was arrested and charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
Tate’s relative, Xavier Tate, 22, has been charged in an arrest warrant with first-degree murder in Huesca’s death but has not been taken into custody.
During a court hearing Sunday in Caschaus Tate’s gun case, a prosecutor told Judge William Fahy the gun was taken from Huesca when he was killed while heading home from work April 20.
“That firearm that was recovered was the same firearm that had been in possession of that officer — Chicago officer who had passed away during the recent homicide,” the prosecutor said, adding that Tate allegedly admitted to trying to hide the weapon from officers.
Fahy acknowledged the gun “wasn’t just any firearm. It was the firearm of a recently murdered Chicago police officer.” But balanced against Tate’s lack of criminal convictions, the judge ordered Tate released on electronic monitoring on the gun charge and set a next court date for Friday.
Prosecutors did not file a motion to detain Tate on the gun charge, not uncommon in cases where there is no allegation of violence.
However, the state’s attorney office did ask another judge to keep Tate in jail in a separate burglary case from earlier this month when Tate allegedly broke into a Richton Park convenience store.
They argued his arrest in the gun case violated the conditions of release in the burglary case.
Tate appeared for a hearing in that case at the Markham Courthouse on Tuesday, where court records show he was ordered detained and his next court date set for May 15.
Huesca was attacked while driving from work to his apartment just blocks from the shooting scene, authorities said. He was still wearing his uniform when he was shot multiple times.
His SUV was stolen and later recovered nearby, according to sources.
Xavier L. Tate Jr. was taken into custody without incident shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday after a “multistate investigation” that involved the Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
Huesca was attacked early April 21 in the 3100 block of West 56th Street, not far from where he lived in Gage Park.
John Catanzara, police union president, discussed the maneuvering with the Sun-Times. When the mayor’s office began “pushing back” against staying away, Catanzara said, the slain officer’s sister told him if the mayor showed up, she would “make a scene and throw him out myself.”
By Fran Spielman
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Caschaus Tate, 20, stopped investigators at the door of a home in Morgan Park, then went out the back and tossed a gun over a fence, police said.
Family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers filled St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel for the funeral. “This day is for Officer Luis Huesca,” said Police Supt. Larry Snelling. “This is his day, nothing else.”
By Sophie Sherry
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Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, whose brother is a Chicago police officer, spoke with the mother and sister of Officer Luis Huesca at Sunday’s wake and passed their wishes along to the mayor’s office that night.
The line of mourners who paid their respects to the slain officer stretched around Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. A combined reward of $100,000 is offered for the arrest of his attacker.
Xavier L. Tate Jr., 22, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Huesca in the 3100 block of West 56th Street, court records show.
By Tom Schuba
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Funeral services for Huesca will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Rita of Cascia Catholic Church at 7740 S. Western Ave. in Chicago, according to the Fraternal Order of Police.
By Tom Schuba
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Huesca, killed on his way home to Gage Park, was a “great officer, great human being” as police Supt. Larry Snelling put it.
A community alert asks for help in identifying the male “subject,” noting that he “should be considered armed and dangerous.” Meanwhile, those who knew Huesca have been left reeling. Rocio Lasso said she leaned on Huesca after her own son, Andres Vásquez Lasso, was killed in the line of duty last year.
Officer Luis Huesca, 30, was going home from work about 3 a.m. in the 3100 block of West 56th Street when a ShotSpotter alert went off, police Supt. Larry Snelling said. No one has been arrested.
